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Gangrel Beat Sheet
Beat Sheets are ways to gain extra beats (experience) to spend on your character, by delving further into the character's nuances and by giving storytelling staff more handles to interact with your character. Whenever a question asks you about someone from your past, you have the option of describing the relevant details and the interaction, but leaving them unnamed. This invites staff to match up the shadows in your past with the shadows in other PCs', giving another dimension of interaction. This Beat Sheet is for Gangrel only. Non-Gangrel characters may get up to five Beats from this sheet if there are questions that reasonably apply to them and have not been answered elsewhere. Gangrel Beat Sheet (Twenty Beats) 'The Kiss '(One Beat) The Kiss is an amazing, euphoric sensation - for both parties. For the vampire, hunger is a constant companion, a powerful, painful thirst that throbs and twists in the gut. Every gulp of the vessel's hot blood further suppresses that painful craving and adds to the already considerable pleasure that the vampire experiences from taste alone. Feeding is always orgasmically good, and while you're drinking you feel alive. In the afterglow your body hums, feeling full where before you were hollow. The Kiss is love and lust for both parties. It's the sex you know you shouldn't have, but will come back for. That said, the details are different for each vampire. A Gangrel's Kiss tends to feel primal - a bone-deep surge of animal pleasure, the urge to rut and howl, a drumbeat tempo that matches the heart. How does your Kiss feel for your vessel? How does it feel for you? 'The Curse '(Two Beat) For most Kindred, the Beast lethargically coils under the skin. Not for the Gangrel. Your Feral Curse means the Beast lies close to the surface, more a part of you than it is for most vampires. It also means it's harder for you to hold the Beast back when it rises within you. How does your Curse influence your behavior? What strategies, if any, do you use to mitigate its effects? 'The Bloodsong '(One Beat) Vitae is always molten ecstacy. It burns the lips and scorches the throat, it's sweet and savory at the same time, it's the best thing you've ever tasted. That said, every vampire's blood tastes slightly different (much like every vintage of wine tastes slightly different) - and they're all the best thing you've ever tasted. Perhaps more importantly, the Blood is alive. A vampire can always feel it, whether it sluggishly collects in a soggy morass deep in the dead gut or whether it clings to the bones and burns like napalm. Again, there are commonalities between clans, though there's also a significantly greater scope for variation. For Gangrel, the Blood runs hot, wild, and untamed. It might squirm like a worm or a snake out of her invisible grip. It might lurk like a snarling wolf or patiently-waiting spider, giving off the feeling of being too perilous to touch. It might feel like a bonfire charring her bones. It might hiss like a snake as it burns through rotten veins, or be a chorus of mad crickets filling the canals of the ear, or be a warbling and discordant howl. What is your Bloodsong? 'The Beast '(Six Beats) All Gangrel are survivors, but not all Gangrel are alphas. Some saunter down the streets as the dog with the biggest bite. Some creep and hide as scavengers. Some move about as shifting chameleons. Some are remoras, latching onto more powerful monsters, and some are cunning coyotes, surviving on stealth and manipulation. What kind of an animal are you? (One Beat) Your Beast has no separate existence from you, of course, but for most vampires it feels like an Other that lives inside the same skin, with its own desires. For vampires who maintain a firm grip on their sanity the Beast might only appear in the dreams of the daysleep or in their mind's eye, a purely psychological projection. Vampires who are a little less bound by objective reality might glimpse their Beast in the corner of their vision, or hear it whispering in their ear. How do you envision your Beast? Is it tied in some way to your deepest hungers? A bloated worm's neck and fat mouth for its bottomless hunger, a Priapic Big Bad Wolf for its depraved lusts? Does it have a voice, wicked in its mammalian seduction or crass in its beserk invective? Could the Beast be something from your mortal life, such as an abusive father dragging his whipping belt or your once-best friend, murdered in frenzy? The Beast within might just be an embodiment of you at your worst: bloody, brutal, wide-eyed, savage in the deepest meaning of the word. Describe your Beast. This is particularly important for Gangrel, because the adaptations available to you through Protean should be based on the Beast within. (Two Beats) Every vampire can evoke three aspects of the Beast by lashing out with her predatory aura: *The Monstrous Beast is the Beast as Destroyer, whose every instinct is to rip asunder and who evokes primative survival instincts in its victims. *The Seductive Beast is the Beast as Tempter, who desires hot abandon, and a temporary escape from reality, inspiring the primal need for instant gratification in its victims. *The Competitive Beast is the Beast as Alpha, who needs to command and control, and evokes submission or proof of dominance from its victims. Describe how each aspect of your Beast manifests in your predatory aura. How does it feel to the victim? (One Beat each) 'Controlling it '(One Beat) At those moments when the Beast rises within you and frenzy threatens, how does it feel to try and stave off those urges? Perhaps you imagine the Beast literally caged, snarling and snapping inside bars of iron or steel. Perhaps you do the mental equivalent of covering your ears with both hands and declaring 'lalala, I'm not listening' to its whispers. Perhaps you feel it only as a rising surge of emotion and combat it with the old tricks of mortality - a deep calming breath, conscious control of your volume and tone, the relaxation of tensed muscles. 'Frenzy '(Three Beats) No two vampires behave exactly the same way when they enter frenzy. The basic personality of the vampire is distilled into its most predatory during the loss of control, eliminating the obstruction of higher mental function, but retaining certain traits. Outgoing, physical Kindred may howl with rage and tear mindlessly at their prey, while more withdrawn intellectual types become chillingly silent, moving with horrifying precision. A vampire's bloodsong strongly influences how they behave at such times, and correspondingly there are clan-related patterns. When Gangrel frenzy the Beast seems to rise and swallow the man before fight or flight kicks in. Gangrel are the most likely to frenzy in the way most people picture, becoming creatures of snarling savagery and seemingly-animal intellect. The things that push a vampire into frenzy tend to fall into basic categories: fear, hunger, anger. The Beast's behavior is obviously different depending on the frenzy's trigger and the Beast's desires. Describe a time that you have frenzied. What was it the Beast wanted, and how did it behave? You may give up to three examples, with each addressing a different motivation. (One Beats each) 'Powers '(Three to Six Beats) You can't learn a Discipline without it changing you. Oh, not a deeply as a Coil changes you, granted - more insidiously than that, and on a psychological rather than a physical level. Many Gangrel notice that Animalism seems to reflect and amplify the soul of the vampire who uses it. Those who believe that they are (and should aspire to be) part of the natural world seem to find spiritual strength in it, anchoring themselves to the living world, sharing it and speaking with it on its own terms. On the other hand, those who consider themselves separate and superior wield the Discipline as a crushing weapon, distancing themselves further from nature and, paradoxically, drawing closer to the Beast within. All of them, however, have to deal with the philosophical implications of being able to communicate with animals as easily as they can communicate with humans. For some it makes animals seem more like people; for others, it makes people seem more like animals. If you have Animalism, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't have Animalism, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Protean is a visible, external expression of the Beast. The flesh is malleable, making Protean the Discipline most likely to force a vampire to come to terms with his own inhumanity and face the question of what it is he has become. The most basic power, Unmarked Grave, frees the Gangrel from the fear of dawn. He is able to find safe retreat anywhere, on mere seconds' notice, which gives a freedom to roam most vampires do not possess. Lacking the need for a Haven, many Gangrel eschew materialism - stuff requires somewhere to put it, and all the glittering possessions that might have awed them as mortals now seem like chains that root an individual in place. Others find themselves aimless, able to go anywhere and so belonging nowhere. If you have Protean, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't have Protean, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Resilience doesn't remove the pain of injury, but it does remove many of the consequences. Many Resilient vampires feel that they are indestructible, and become inclined to see all setbacks are temporary or superficial. It's harder to take many dangers seriously when a sword looks as threatening as a letter opener. That said, when something ''does ''damage a vampire with Resilience, they are more likely to overestimate its threat level than to underestimate it. The other common issue Gangrel find is that others are less sympathetic to their pain or injury. They are expected to withstand greater punishment - after all, they are the primal, hardy Savage - and they are often pushed into combatative roles whether they like it or not. If you have Resilience, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't have Resilience, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Category:Beat Sheets Category:Gangrel